John Giordano, a 47-year-old Philadelphia lawyer with close ties to President Donald Trump, has emerged as a leading candidate to serve as the acting U.S. Attorney, the New Jersey Globe has learned.
He had served as deputy general counsel to the Trump transition team after the 2016 election.
Giordano emerged as a potential interim appointee after State Sen. Douglas Steinhardt (R-Lopatcong) turned down the post.
The Philadelphia Inquirer had reported on Saturday that Giordano was a contender to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
It’s unclear whether Giordano is under consideration as the permanent U.S. Attorney in New Jersey or if the post is simply a temporary assignment. Sources told the New Jersey Globe that Giordano is not the number one choice for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania position.
If the Justice Department opts to send Giordano to New Jersey on an interim basis, he will succeed Acting U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna, who assumed the post following Philip Sellinger’s resignation in December.
Interim federal prosecutors are capped at 120 days, and could stay on after that if a majority of federal judges from the District of New Jersey vote to authorize it.
Trump named him a U.S. Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 2019. He has made significant contributions to Republican candidates, including Trump’s campaign and PACs and the Republican National Committee during the 2024 cycle.
Giordano served as assistant commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Giordano was a senior advisor and staff director at the U.S. Department of Energy during President George W. Bush’s administration.
He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and as counselor to the Assistant U.S. Attorney General in the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources division. He served as a faculty advisor for the Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania; Giordano also served as a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
There are signs of political ambition for Giordano: he had briefly sought a Philadelphia city council seat in 2011.
A graduate of Villanova University and Villanova Law School, Giordano clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Irenas. He was an associate at DLA Piper and, for six years, a partner at Archer & Greiner in Philadelphia.
His father, Frank Giordano, a Moorestown resident, runs a family trucking business, Atlantic Trailer Leasing Corporation, and serves on the Rowan University Board of Trustees. During his first term, Trump named him to the Advisory Committee on the Arts of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
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